Rise of the Ripper
by DarkDevon13
Summary: A new hero appears, a spiky young symbiote going by the name of Ripper. The child of the psychotic Carnage symbiote, will the Avengers and Spiderman find a new ally? Or will she embrace the family legacy?
1. Chapter 1 UPDATED

It was a fairly normal afternoon when it happened. You know one of those cheerful, actually kinda nice afternoons. Spiderman was out web-swinging with the newest of his spider-siblings. The Ripper, the strongest symbiote there was.

Blah-blah alien biology stuff, but Carnage had found out that it was pregnant, and wasn't exactly glowing with pride at the thought of their unborn spawn. So, two months ago it went to San Francisco to try and kill it with fire (literally). That failed, and the the impressionable mini-goo ended up bonded to one Dr. Ko Morinozuka.

Spidey only knew that because the good doc had let him know in strictest confidence. Unlike her predecessors, Ripper, or R as 'she' apparently preferred, was actually pretty chill. Gave Ko a sweet super-suit, all black with purple trim and even a sweet-ass hood. And interesting design choice, but it was definitely distinctive.

Point was, the two spiders were having a lovely afternoon when, almost predictably, it all went to hell in a hand-basket.

The warnings signs came when both he and Ripper then got a weird feeling in her brain. It wasn't painful, per say, but definitely let her know it was there. "You feel that?"

"Spider-Sense, it's a thing in our brains that warns of danger."

"Well that explains a few things. Also, that is going to require so much discussion." Ripper then noticed something behind him. "Oh, and danger like that?" She pointed to the giant figure coming up from behind the rooftops. It was a giant human like figure. Not an Ice Giant more like Jack in the Beanstalk type giants.

Jesus H. Christ. Actual giants. Spidey did not get paid enough for this. (Well, he didn't get paid period.)

Ripper jumped a couple rooftops to get closer. "What are you doing?"

"Seeing if those long hours watching anime were worth it!" She web shot onto the back of one, but wasn't quite fast enough to avoid being swept into one of the giant's hands. And Spidey did not like the way the giant was eye-balling Ripper. Looked like it wanted to eat her up. (And not in the fun way).

"I should warn you, I'm a lot stronger than I look." With that, she broke the Titan's grip on her, web shot onto its shoulder and sliced the neck quick succession, the black blade sticking all the way through to the throat.

"Well that's not terrifying." Spiderman commented.

"Back of neck is the weak point!" Ripper called out, web shooting onto the back of another one.

"Good to know!" he then narrowly avoided getting stepped on one like an actual spider in Aunt May's bathroom.

* * *

 ** _Half and hour later…_**

"Maria, does SHIELD have any idea what those things are?" Tony Stark was flying out, observing the utter chaos caused by these mysterious creatures.

"No sound intel yet, Tony. These 'Titans' simply emerged from the water and started eating people. But here's the sit-rep…"

"Falcon and Thor are trying to slow down the ones still coming from the harbor with minimal success. Spider man and an unknown associate have engaged two of the 'smaller' Titans in Times Square…"

The web shooter narrowly dodged as one of the two smallest Titans made a grab for him. "If you kids want a photo op, you'll have to wait in line like everybody else! Donations are optional." He shot up and used his spider strength plus the momentum to kick one in the jaw.

"Sheesh, the problem dealing with you silent monstrosities is…" He released a mess of webbing into the creature's eyes. "Is that there's nobody to appreciate my rapier-like wit!"

"Hey! I'm here, aren't I?" She was cutting the head off of her Titan. He chose not to think or look at that too much. Aunt May had packed him a rather nice lunch, and Spidey would rather not loose it.

"Sorry Ripper, you're quieter than who I'm used to. Which reminds me." He took out a street lamp. "Just because Derek Jeter retired—" He used it to hit the Titan to the ground. "—but that doesn't leave the Big Apple without a slugger!" Then drove the pointier end through the back of the Titan's neck.

 _"But It's not Spiderman I'm worried about though…"_

"Damn! Look at the size of those things Cap!"

"Captain America, Black Widow and Hawkeye have a much bigger problem to deal with…"

"So did you expect to catch the finale of Dog Cops tomorrow?" The spy asked the archer.

"Would've been nice." The archer responded with a sigh.

"It's up to us to contain them. Avengers Assemble!" Captain America released their battle cry.

They hit it with everything they had, going for the obvious weak points like the eyes, face and legs, but so far nothing was working.

That's when Cap got the brilliant (stupid) idea that perhaps their insides were more vulnerable. Well, the Titan had swallowed to grenades to no affect and his shield was currently the only think keeping him from being lunch meat.

"Cap!" Black Widow shouted.

"Not today!" someone yelled, and he was kicked out from the teeth, and in a flash, he crashed though the window of a nearby skyscraper.

"You okay?" He looked up. A girl in a black, spider-inspired costume was on top of him and they landed in a wedding dress store. His life was so weird sometimes.

"Um," she laughed awkwardly. "Sorry. I really didn't intend for us to land in here. Not that I would be opposed to—you know what, I'm just going to stop talking."

"That might not be a bad idea." He groaned. She helped him up (not that he needed help he just liked her touching him and-bad brain, bad).

"I'm Ripper. I know you have questions, but for now all you need to know that the best way to kill the Titans is to strike the weak point they have at the back of their necks."

They'd been all but calling in missile strikes, yet this mysterious girl suddenly had the magical solution to their problem? "How do you—"

"Just trust me on this! I already killed like, three of these things already." Captain America took a moment, but called his team with the info anyway.

"Avengers, there's a possible weak point on the backs of their necks. Try to strike there."

"That's all the target I need!" Hawkeye yelled as he released a volley of arrows into the supposed weak point. The Titan fell as promised, narrowly missing the building he and Ripper had crashed into.

"How did you know that?" He asked, as she put an arm around his waist, hugging the Captain to her side as she obviously prepared to web-shot them out of the building and back into the thick of things.

"Do yourself a favor and Google Attack on Titan sometime. Now, Seid ihr das Essen? Nein, wir sind der Jager!" She sang, jumping them back into the fray. Cap translated the German in his head (Are you the food? No, we are the hunters!), and wondered about the strange new ally.

* * *

 _"Copy Maria! I'm five seconds out from the Hulk…"_

The Hulk was battering at the female Titan's legs, growling in frustration as his normal devastating attacks didn't seem to have much affect.

"…with a red-hot repulsor surprise for Miss Teenage Towering Beauty Queen here." Iron Man arrived, and struck the back of the neck, as the good Captain had relayed.

"You Titans think you're stronger than me?! You're wrong!" Hulk jumped up, and grabbed a nearby building's lightning rod.

"Hulk is the strongest one there is!" He jumped. "HULK SMASH!" And drove it through another Titan's neck.

When he came back down, Iron Man, Captian America, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Spiderman were gathered on a street corner. "Form up team! The battle's not over yes. Reports are pouring in from SHIELD…and the largest Titan yet just emerged downtown near the Statue of Liberty."

"Fear not Iron Man!" Thor came in over the comm. "The Ripper, Falcon and I have this well in hand!"

"Thor, now!" There was the sound of a thunderclap, then a sizzling, frying meat sound as the Norse demigod threw down his signature lightning.

"Huh, well never mind. Wait, what's a Ripper?"

* * *

 **At the Statue of Liberty…**

The largest of the Titans lay defeated in the water, metallic Falcon feathers sticking out of the back of its neck that had channeled the lightning into the Titan's spinal column. "Well, I'm glad that's over." Sam sighed as the three heroes gathered on the liberty torch.

"Same," Ripper commented. "I'm just glad that whoever made these Titans was such a SNK fan to include their weakness." She was an anime nerd herself, but if she were to hypothetically create a race of monsters to take over the world, she'd be sure to not include their one weakness. Hypothetically.

"Anyway, it's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Falcon." She shook his hand.

"I know. I'm called Ripper." There was some sort of alert. She pulled out her phone. "So sorry, gotta go." And web shot away

* * *

 **Back at the Tower...**

"So, how'd you figure out the back of the neck was their weak point?" Tony asked, reviewing data from the battle on his tablet. It was late, and the Avengers had decided that they could do the post mission debriefing in the morning, after everyone had half-decent amounts of sleep. Steve and Tony, being the resident insomniacs/workaholics, couldn't quite settle down yet.

"I had help from a masked woman in black and purple. She had subtle webbing designs and a hood." Steve said as he focused on his sketchbook.

"Spiderman copy-cat?" Tony asked. The kid had quite the little following, not that Tony was in any way jealous. Iron Man would always be number one.

"Nope, she was different. Stronger," she had cut a Titan's head off with only a couple of blows "And she had some sort of retractable…bladed hands." He wiggled his own fingers in abstract thought.

"Knife fingers? As in, like Freddy Kreuger knife fingers?" He nodded, remembering the slasher movie marathon Clint had made them watch last Halloween. "Okay, that's not creepy at all." Tony snarked

"We need to find her." Steve decided, a dour expression on his face as he added some finishing details to his sketch.

"To stop her or send her a thank you note?" Tony asked.

"Depends."

"On…?"

"On whether or not she's going to be the next Hyperion." Steve looked at the finished product. It was a sketch of Ripper in a battle pose, ready to fight.

"Yeah, best to avoid that."


	2. Chapter 2 UPDATED

Doctor Ko Morinozuka entered her high-rise apartment through the window she left open. As it was on 66th floor, it wasn't that big of a security concern (unless that security concern was pigeons, which could be beyond annoying). She shut it, then ran a hand through her hair as Ripper retreated off of her skin and back into her bloodstream, leaving the young adult in her comfy jim-jams.

Ko pressed her voicemail while she went and got some chocolate ice cream from her freezer. "You have: one missed message." There was the machine beep. "Hey Ko sweetie, it's your mother. I'm just calling to tell you I love you, and I hope you know that. We know after getting fired from the hospital you've been in a bit of a slump…and while your father and I don't exactly approve of you just up and moving across the country on a seeming whim…we can understand if you want some space. Just promise me you won't become a depressed alcoholic, okay? Much love, Mom." There was a beep. " _End of messages_."

She sighed. Mom had a point. After getting fired from Mercy Hospital, she had been in a bit of a slump. Though, after what happened she deserved that slump. She was the one who discovered the black market drug dealings at the hospital, if anything she should've gotten a pay raise, not a severance check. But the board was so lacking a fucking backbone, or politics or whatever, bye-bye Dr. Morinozuka. Her mother, Francine, who besides being an incensed parent was one of the best lawyers in California, had filed a wrongful termination lawsuit and won, but it hadn't made her feel any better. So for the last year or so, Ko had basically just been lounging around, not clinically depressed, but not interested in doing anything that didn't involve surfing or food.

Then the symbiote happened.

Two months ago, she was just walking through downtown San Fransisco when she stepped in something. Barely noticing, she wiped her feet on the doormat and thought nothing off it.

Until she woke up the next morning suspended from the ceiling. "What the hell?!" She detached, falling gracefully to the floor. She looked in the mirror, and saw a simple black and purple costumed figure staring back. She remembered thinking how the costume was nice, but could use some more style, when it changed right before her eyes. Black with a hood and purple trim.

So, for the next few days, she did what any other reasonable person did when they got superpowers.

Meaning: she _played_ with them.

Starting with a little crawling on the walls and ceilings turned into jumping from rooftop to rooftop of downtown San Francisco. The decidedly non-athletic kid genius had rejoiced at being able to some parkour moves experienced gymnasts would envy her for. She even managed to do some good, because beating up would-be rapists was always good, clean, wholesome family fun.

She was brighter, more active, finally had something to do. Her change of demeanor had drawn her family's attention.

"You look better," her father commented about five days after she started her nighttime outings. "Any plans for today?"

"Nothing much," Ko shrugged. Patrol the rooftops, "Return some library books," beat up some people, "check out that new pizza place," break into a lab and investigate the ooze. Her parents just smiled, glad that she was out of her slump. If they only knew.

Two days after that, she stood in front of her closet mirror, having an important decision to make.

"Okay self, if you're really going to do the whole cool vigilante hero thing, you'll need a cool name. How about… Agony?" Something in her brain said no. "Hybrid?" No. "Lasher?" Also no. "Mayhem?" Too close to Carnage. "Phage?" Medical, but stupid. "Riot?" Nyet. "Mania?" She wasn't crazy. "Toxin?" Maybe. But it didn't exactly call out to her.

How about Ripper? A voice called out.

"AH!" Ko dove to the floor. "Who said that?"

 **Me. Hi, I'm your symbiote .**

"Symbiote? Is that what you're called? Cool."

 **Thank you. So, Ripper? Thoughts? It is going to be my name too and I'd like it to be something cool and not sounding like something from a cheesy eighties comic book.**

"Or a bad manga." Ko sat up.

 **Exactly. So, Ripper, yes? No?**

"Well..." She looked into her bedroom mirror. "Ripper." Ko sounded it out. "I am Ripper. I am Ripper." She posed, hands on hips. "Aww yeah, villain! You just got your ass whooped by the Ravenous Ripper!" She growled, looking angry. "Who am I? Who am I?! I'm the Ripper!"

There was a knock on the door. "Ko?" It was her mom "You okay in there? You sound a little… weird."

"Just…working out a thing. It's an eccentric genius thing, don't worry!"

"…Okay." She sounded unsure. "I got takeout."

"Cashew chicken and fried rice with crab ragoons?"

"Yes."

"Be down in a second." She waited until she heard mom walk away. "Okay Ripper, off." Ko whispered.

 **You don't have to say stuff out loud all the time. Just think, and I'll do.**

 _Good to know_. And with that, the symbiote retracted back into her body, leaving Ko in her pajamas. It looked like nothing could go wrong for the two of them. That was, until Ko started to find out more about her new friend's special needs.

That was when Ko woke up one morning to find herself surrounded by truffle wrappers and half-eaten candy bars. _R, did you use my body to steal chocolate last night?_ The symbiote didn't respond, but she didn't have to.

"You don't have to do that, I'll buy chocolate for us." As it turned off, the symbiote fed off a certain neurotransmitter in the brain that could also be found in chocolate. So, Ko got to justifiably eat chocolate almost every day without gaining a pound.

Life was good.

Then Carnage had happened. The crazed symbiote had swung into town, tracked down his new daughter and nearly killed her. (Of the two fathers, they liked Ko's side more. Kiku made pancakes. And took them to DisneyLand).

Ripper knew she was stronger, she was literally the two of them put together. But it had still been a hard won battle, only ending when Agent Venom, her apparent grandfather intervened. Carnage retreated, but not before villianously swearing that he'd return to finish the job. So Ripper ended up dragging their new family(?) member back to their house to get patched up.

Flash seemed to be a pretty decent guy, if a bit immature, but when she nervously asked him to give her a few pointers, he had to decline. "While that would be awesome family bonding time, I'm still figuring out this whole symbiote thing to myself. You're better off going to the best superhero in the world."

"And that is?" Because everyone had a different opinion on that. (Ko leaned towards Hulk. He was AWESOME.)

"Spiderman, duh."

So, within the week, she packed up half of her stuff, and got a place in New York, and had been prowling the rooftops (still hadn't gotten a hang on the whole web-shooting thing yet, she kept crashing into things) for signs of the web-head, as well as trying to figure out the best way to approach him. Catching him on that particular rooftop that morning was a lucky break. Actually winning his trust was a luckier one.

All things considered, today was not a bad day. She got to meet Captain America, the man seemed nice. And had a nice little bum.

What? Despite the alien floating in her bloodstream, she was only human.

* * *

 **Two weeks later, on top of the Brooklyn Bridge**

She had Spidey pinned with a bladed hand to his throat in under twenty seconds. It only took him ten more to tap out. "You're getting good at this crazy quickly." They took a water break.

"Maybe I just have a good teacher." He sensed her smiling underneath the mask.

"By the way, Fury asked me to ask you to join SHIELD Academy."

"I suppose he won't be satisfied with a 'maybe'." She stated after taking a long drink of water.

"Nope."

"Fine," she sighed, "give me the speech." The least she could do is hear the guy out.

"I'll give you the abridged version. You could be part of something bigger than yourself, become your best self. I forget after that. You get cool training. Become part of a team."

"I get that with you. And I figured the shapeshifting thing all on my own. Do you get paid?"

Did he get paid? That was never really established, but he's going with no. Apparently his silence was enough of a response. "Money isn't really an issue for me. I train fine all on my own, and we can team up if we need to. I want to help the best I can, and I don't think SHIELD is the place that I can do the most good. So no offense, but tell Fury no thank you."

"Fair enough I suppose."

* * *

 **Avengers Tower**

"Alright Falcon, what have you got?" Tony said by way of starting the info session.

"This girl has made for one very interesting research assignment. The name Ripper would be a bit disconcerting until you've seen what she's done." He pulled up stuff. "From what I've studied from this girl, she's impressive. The Ripper symbiote is the child of the Carnage symbiote-the species reproduces aesexually. Besides wall-crawling and web shooting, she has shapeshifting abilities—hence the bladed limbs—super strength, and invulnerability." He pulled files up. "She took on Carnage in San Francisco-"

"Wait, Carnage was sighted and we're only hearing about it now?" Cap said.

"We were busy with HYDRA at the time. Not to worry, she beat him-with a little help from one of Spidey's friends, Agent Venom. I found a number of police reports from the last month that may involve her. They describe a masked woman in black attacking…attackers. She's put five would-be rapists in the hospital so far. Both here and in San Francisco."

"You sure it's her?"

"Those who would talk mentioned a hood with spider designs."

"So she's targeting criminals." Clint said.

"Misogynist criminals." Natasha muttered.

"Wonder who's behind the wheel, though, the host or the symbiote?" Iron Man asked.

"Not all symbiotes are evil, Tony. Just because Venom and Carnage are...Venom and Carnage, doesn't mean you can generalize an entire species." Captain America stated. He knew that stereotyping was bad, and he was born in the fourties.

"You're just saying that 'cause you have a crush on her." Clint bantered.

He did not. And because he did not, he also did not have to dignify that with a response. He may think she was cute, but you could think a bunny or a puppy was cute and not have a crush on it. "How many of us have parents we're not exactly proud of?" That obviously struck a chord with the rest of the team. None of them had exactly stellar childhoods. "Family history aside, she found out the Titan's weakness, and managed to take them down with a disturbing efficiency. We could use someone like her on the team. Or at the very least, on our side."

"If she's interested." Natasha said, glancing at her phone. "I just had a talk with our favorite little spider. The Ripper turned down SHIELD this morning."

"We're not SHIELD." Tony dismissed. "Anything else he could tell us?" Like that oh-so-important motivation Black Widow mentioned when Hyperion first came to town.

"She wants to help where she can. The symbiote still gives me pause though. While it's true that we can't generalize and entire species, we do still have to consider the symbiote's background, along with the host's. And that is something Spiderman is being surprisingly tight-lipped about." Secret identities were a bit of a...not problem for the Avengers, but they did throw a wrench into things. Everyone of the main members was a public figure, none of them having to keep up dual identities. Except Black Widow, who had more like...ten identities to choose from.

The point was, how could they trust someone they knew next to nothing about? And if they did do digging without that person's permission, how could they expect that trust to be regained?

"How about we just…wait and see for now?" Steve suggested.

"Agreed." And wait and see they would indeed.


	3. Chapter 3

Rise of the Ripper Ch 3

Turns out, they didn't have to wait and see for much longer.

The next day, while he was taking his motorcycle out for a nice ride, he found a giant killer robot. Trashing midtown Manhattan. So naturally, he pulled out his shield and prepared himself for a fight.

"Heads up!" He saw out of the corner of his eye a figure coming towards him, and swinging them both out of the way of the giant fist.

"We've gotta stop meeting like this." Cap commented.

"Really? And here I thought you enjoyed these little swings of ours." She shot back, landing them on top of a police car forming a barricade.

"Any chance your blades can cut through them?" His shield was made out of the strongest material on the planet, and possibly even the galaxy, so he knew he could at least make a dent.

"I'll give it a shot." She went in, and was promptly shot back, only narrowly avoiding the flamethrowers.

"…I'm going to go with a solid _maybe_."

"I'm calling Iron Man."

"I have no problem with that."

"Tony, I—"

"I know. Coming your way, giant robot with flamethrowers. Anything else?"

"I see missile launchers…" he threw his shield.

"Good to know."

There was a strange buzzing then breaking sound, like a wood saw hitting a piece of metal. Did she just—yes, yes she did. "There _were_ chainsaws, but Ripper broke them."

"I'm liking this girl more and more." And in a flash of gold-red, he was there.

"Now that the master of machines is here, I'm gonna look for whatever the hell's controlling this thing." Steve glanced around as Iron Man's anti-tank missiles distracted the Giant Killer Robot.

"Look for anything suspic—"

"Found it!" She pointed to MODOK, who was watching the proceedings from a nearby skyscraper rooftop. "Any advice?"

"Just… live up to your name." He smirked.

"Foolish girl, I am MODOK, the ultimate creation in human-machine interface—"

"Yeah yeah, blah blah blah, Evil villain intro." She looked around. "Oooo, is that your robot?" She pointed to the big bronze-chromed thing currently using Thor as a punching bag. It was obviously another model (one hopefully without flamethrowers). No, wait, ice beams. She could deal with ice beams.

"Yeeeess…" He drawled out, obviously not sure where the young hero was going with this.

"Imma kill it."

"Don't you do it."

"Imma do it!"

"Don't you do it!" She jumped up. While it was distracted by Thor, she cut the head clean off, then the four limbs in quick succession.

"DAMMIT!"

"You know, you're a little annoying." She web shot MODOK's mouth shut.

"Thanks for that."

"By the way, you wouldn't happen to be—" But she was gone.

The Spectacular Symbiote, everyone. She's here, then she's not.

And for a long time, that was the last Captain America saw of the Ripper.

* * *

It was right after he and some of the other Avengers left Tony's 'team' to officially join SHIELD that he saw her again. Between the Cabal, Infinity Stones, Thanos and Ultron, he honestly hadn't had much time to think about the purple wall-crawler.

At the moment, actually, he was thinking about the upcoming 4th of July. Which was actually his birthday (nope, that was not propaganda). He wasn't planning on doing anything besides maybe catching a ball game and maybe eat an entire box of donuts from his favorite bakery if SHELD didn't have anything for him to do.

"Hey, Cap, you got a-here." It was a note, written in an lovely, if wild scrawl. It was stuck to him with a familiar purple webbing. He found himself smiling.

' _Will you walk into my parlor?' Said the Spider to the fly._

' _Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you did spy._

 _The way into my parlor is up a winding stair._

 _And I have many curious things to show you when you are there._

He recognized it as the first stanza of 'The Spider and the Fly', a poem by Mary Howitt. It was old even when he was a kid. It was written on the back of a receipt for a bookstore in Queens. He guessed that meant that she wanted to meet him there.

"You want me to come with you?" Falcon asked.

"Not necessary, I'm curious about what she wants."

He found the bookstore with relative ease. It was in a quiet corner of what was a mostly Jewish neighborhood, based on the amount of kosher butchers and synagogues he saw on the way there.

She was sitting in the upstairs reading lounge, her mask pulled up to above her (soft-looking) lips, and was drinking red tea. He spent a lot of time in England during the war, he knew tea.

"Okay Ripper, what's with the whole cloak-and-dagger routine? You're usually more direct than that."

"With you joining a not-that-secret spy organization, I thought I'd give it a shot." She shrugged, putting in a bookmark.

"Something tells me you didn't call me up here for tea." He surmised. She finished it and tugged the lower part of her mask back down.

"Nope. That's a second or third date kind of thing. Right now, I need your help with something."

"I'm no longer an Avenger."

"Interesting, but not really relevant." She pulled out some pictures from her suit. "Yesterday evening, a man named Thomas Dowager was put in involuntary psychiatric hold at St. Claire's hospital. He appears to have suffered from some kind of psychotic break, was lashing out violently, and acting, well…basically like the Hulk before he fused with Banner. Earlier that day, he got off a meeting with his therapist. The man was completely psychologically healthy, with no history of violent outbursts, family or otherwise."

"Interesting, but this is more a case for psychiatrists than SHIELD."

"He's not the only one. There's been a string of seemingly healthy, normal people breaking out into inexplicable violent rages. They aren't faking it, and they don't seem to come out of it. Whatever or whoever is causing this, it's only the beginning."

There was a distinctive feeling in his gut. One that told him that this was something at least looking into. "I'll call in SHIELD. We can have a strike team assembled and the patients looked at—"

"Yeah, that's more time than I'm ready for."

"This could be big, no way the two of us can handle it on our own."

"So, to be clear, you're agreeing to help me?"

"Of course." He turned to make the call to Fury.

"Sorry, about this." He heard her say, and the world went black.


	4. Chapter 4

Quick Note: For purposes of the story, Spider-man's (And by extension, Ripper's) Spider-sense is still something of a secret that VERY few people know about. Captain America doesn't know either of them have that, or even that it exists really.

As always, I own nothing.

* * *

" _The lab should just be over this clearing."_

" _If you say so Cap." The young man replied tersely._

" _Okay, what's with the attitude Buck, you've been short with me all afternoon."_

" _I'm still saying we should call for backup." The brunette crossed his arms._

" _A small victory is still a victory. It's not too far out of our way. Anna said there shouldn't be—"_

" _Exactly,_ Anna _said." Cap stopped, obviously not getting it. "Okay, I'll say this once, then we can move on." Steve raised an eyebrow. "You don't always show the best judgment when stunning women are involved."_

" _It takes more than just a girl to trip me up."_

" _That's the thing—it really doesn't. If there's a beautiful dame with a problem nearby, Captain America is going to find her, and drag me, Bucky Barnes, into trouble."_

" _Don't you say I always get you into trouble anyway?"_

" _More trouble than usual. Especially if the girl has moxie."_

He came to consciously slowly.

He was embarrassed and angry. Not because he was knocked out by a girl. Hell no, he was above that kind of small-minded thinking. If anything he was mad at himself for not keeping his guard up around her. Even if she was supposedly on their side, Ripper was a symbiote, and a combination of two of the worst at that. Symbiotes were unstable, aggressive. They turned good people into monsters, if Spiderman's experience was anything to go by.

He woke up slowly, assessing his surroundings with his other senses before opening his eyes. Touch: he wasn't restrained or tied up in any sort of way, and was leaned up against something cold and hard. The air was colder, so possibly nighttime. His shield was on his back. Hearing: Very feint sounds of traffic, probably in a side street or something. Smell: Feint traces of garbage (not unusual for New York), concrete and steel. Only then did he open his eyes.

"Where are we?"

"The Bronx." Ripper spoke up, crouched down and looking at something with a pair of binoculars.

"And what are we doing in the Bronx?"

"I looked over the schedules and routes of the people who've been affected—standard outbreak procedure, really. They all ended up on this street, no one sees them for a few hours, then _boom_. Mad as a hatter without the charm. I've already checked out the other buildings. This one though…I'm pretty sure whatever we're looking for is going to be in there." He wasn't going to comment how it looked abandoned. All good hideouts looked abandoned. He looked over his gear.

"You took my communicators."

"Didn't want you to freak out and call SHIELD." He'd have to have a long talk with her about that some time soon. But for now, he'd play along. He had agreed to help.

"Okay then, I'll go in do recon, you stay out here and wait for me." She gave him a look that said 'no fucking way'. Then she actually said it.

"This isn't a one-person job. If it was, I wouldn't have brought you."

"Oh no, you're staying right here missy. You're too inexperienced to pull off something like this."

"First, did you seriously just call me _missy_? Second, _make_ me."

Oh, he can. He was taught by the best the Allied forces had to offer and no he's going to impart some of that wisdom because it just might save Ripper's life. This sounded like HYDRA and HYDRA meant business. They had no idea what was in there and he wasn't about to let a raw recruit walk in blind. Steve's fought with Spiderman and knows Ripper's symbiotic powers are based off of Spidey's. Ripper may have the speed, but she lacks the experience. There's no way Ripper will avoid—

Except she does.

Time and again, Ripper manages to evade every single attack. "How do you do that?" Steve asks. "Are you sensing the disturbances in the air when I move? Photographic reflexes?"

"I'm gonna stick a pin in this conversation to be continued at a later date." She shot a white web line and held out her arm. "So are you with me, partner?" _Partner_. There was that word again. His last partner had been Bucky, and they all knew how that ended up.

Still, it wasn't like he could just let her do this alone.

"Fine." He conceded, letting her swing them into the side of a building. Crawling up she reached a middling window—high enough so there wouldn't be an alarm, but low enough so that it would open, period.

"Okay, we're in."

"Can I ask if there's a plan beyond this?" He asked, keeping his voice lowered.

"Look around, use my symbiotic senses to keep us a step ahead of any guards, find a lab, look at the data, get an idea of what the hell is going on."

"What makes you think there's a lab?"

"There's always a lab."

That was when Ripper's spider sense went wild. "Get down!" And pushed them both down to the floor, out of the way of the laser cannon that came out of a sliding panel in the ceiling. Steve quickly disabled it with a shield bounce.

"You okay?" Ripper asked, sounding concerned.

"Perfectly fine." He grunted, ignoring that this was the second time she'd been on top of him and— _don't go there don't go there don't go there._

"So, that means whatever we want is _definitely_ going to be in here." She surmised, getting back up.

"…Yeah." He admitted, focusing himself back on the mission. They crawled around for a few more minutes, noting the suspicious lack of guards until they make it to what was once some sort of lab.

"Told you there'd be a lab." He just rolled his eyes.

"Okay, okay password protected." She talked more to herself than him. Reaching onto her belt, she pulled out a flashdrive and put it in the computer port. He stared at her belt for a long while, looking at for any pouches or hidden pockets and seeing nothing. Well, not _nothing…_

Realizing he was being disrespectful and determined to not let it happen again, he turned his eyes to the computer screen.

 **Itsy Bitsy Spider Software Installed**

 **Crawl up the Water Spout?**

"H-A-I spells hai." Steve raised an eyebrow. Japanese? As the computer did…something, he looked around the laboratory. Though everything seemed empty and abandoned to the naked eye, he noticed a distinct lack of dust. Recently cleared out. He looked around, still wary of setting off any traps.

"Find anything?" She asked, finishing up.

"No. You?"

"Files that I'll have to decrypt later. For now, though, we have what we need."

"Then let's get out of here." She put the flashdrive back in her belt.

Ripper's spider sense went off. "Not quite." A brick was thrown through the window and, they started to hear the sounds of a crowd—scratch that, a _riot._ Looking down through the shattered glass, they saw that the people below were incensed to an almost mindless violence. Captain America looked like he wanted to go down there and do something.

"Wait!" She stopped him.

"We can't just—"

"And if we go down there, something tells me we'll turn out just like them!"

"… _What_?"

"Think about it. How many people were out here not half an hour ago?"

"None."

"Do you remember what we were here to investigate?"

"People going into rages."

"Exactly." He looked down at the riot, then back at him.

"Do you have any long range capabilities?"

"Besides the webbing? There's one thing, but it's more mid-range." That left him.

"If you can tell me where...whatever's causing this is coming from, I can use my shield to destroy whatever's broadcasting it." Using her enhanced senses, she picked up traces of a frequency. High pitched, probably outside most people's normal range of hearing. Looking around, without getting too close, she saw a glimmer of metal.

 _Sniper rifle?_

 _ **Look closer.**_ R suggested. Marking the small device with her webbing, Steve threw his shield, destroying the device. Already she could see people calming down and dispersing, confused about what had just transpired. Now, onto the next order of business…

"Ripper, what are you—" Steve asked.

"You."

"H-huh?" The middle aged man stuttered out, grabbing him, she brought them back to a nearby alleyway.

"Everyone else was acting up, you were perfectly calm."

"W-well, I believe in keeping a cool head."

"Really, because there was an angry mob just about tearing each other limb from limb a few minutes ago, and you were fine. All we wanna do is have a little chat and your heart rate's going a mile a minute." Spider sense.

He swung a wild haymaker, which Ripper easily caught. "Trying to hit a lady?" She tisked. "Now I may be a modern woman but that's just not nice."

"I'd sooner die than talk."

"Oh, I love it when they say that."


	5. Chapter 5

Rise of the Ripper Ch 5

 _We start to see what Ripper's been up to for the past year._

* * *

"Ripper, what are you—" Four tentacles emerged from Ripper's back like Doc Ock's metallic limbs, they wrapped around the man and hoisted him into the air.

"Please calm down, sir." He visibly calmed. "Now, what is this?" She held up the crushed device in her other hand, having removed the webbing herself.

"A madbomb." He answered.

"Good. Now this is probably redundant, but what does a madbomb do?"

"Creates chaos. It emits a frequency that can't be heard, but instead felt. Makes people act crazy and fight each other."

"I can see that." Cap commented. "How are you immune, though?" He wasn't responding. Ripper forced him too.

"Special conditioning. I was just supposed to plant it and walk away."

"Are there others like this?"

"Yes."

"Where?"

"I don't know the specifics, I'm not that high up in the Royalists."

"The Royalists?" Steve asked, not liking the sound of that.

"Let me guess, elitist pricks who think they should be in charge. And not through an electoral college." He nodded. "Okay, what are they planning?"

"A complete overthrow of the government."

"Okay, that is big, but a bit vague." She stared at him for a few more seconds. "Anything else?"

"That's all I know." Ripper had a searching look, (Steve was amazed at how much expression she could convey behind the mask) before letting him down.

"Now run along home and forget all about this," before letting him go. With a blank look on his face, the man walked away.

"Okay now, what the hell was that?"

"Ever seen Star Trek?"

He shrugged. "A few episodes."

"Well, the Vulcans—pointy ears—have touch telepathy, and can read people's minds through skin contact. Symbiotes can kind of do the same thing, it's how my syimbiote always knows what I want her to do without saying anything."

"So, what now?" He asked.

"Now, we go to South Dakota."

"Why South Dakota?"

"Because that's where the Royalist's main base is located."

"You got that from him too?"

"No, I got that from the computers." She started walking, and he followed close behind. "We need to go over the other files. Lucky for us it's a five our ride to the Dakotas."

"Only one hour by jet." He shot back, hoping that now would be the time to get her to go to SHIELD.

"I think you're overestimating the resources I have access to."

"So, what would you suggest then?"

"How do you feel about trains?"

* * *

Normally, he felt very positive about trains, but right now, lounging in first class with 'Kora Haninozuka' (probably a fake name), he just felt out of place. He knew about the symbiote's shape shifting abilities, so he was certain that this wasn't Ripper's real face. Unless of course it was a double bluff and she only wanted him to think this was a fake shape shift and it actually was her face.

She'd been sorting through the data on her laptop well into the ride, giving him information as they went along. Apparently this Royalist Society was had several sizes of madbombs. The one in the alleyway had been a 'Peanut', able to influence and entire room and the smallest. 'Dumpling' could turn an entire neighborhood against one another. But it appeared that their biggest concern was something called the 'Big Daddy" that could potentially affect all of the United States.

"Can you find where it is?" He asked.

"Looking, but what we raided was merely a side lab. They were testing at what levels and for how long someone had to be exposed to the madbomb for the affects to become long-term. Looks like that answers that."

Normally, he'd be concerned this conversation would be overheard, but they were literally the only ones in the compartment.

"You're not like the other symbiotes I've met." He finally said.

"You've met many symbiotes?"

"Just Carnage and Venom."

"And something tells me you don't exactly spend long helicopter rides with them."

"So, enlighten me. Why are you so different from them?"

"It's complicated."

"It's a five hour ride to South Dakota. I think we have time." Ripper glanced at him for a moment.

"Though symbiotes are born with the genetic memories and powers of their forbearers, they are born blank slates. So the first host is critical to deciding what kind of person they're going to be. Carnage, for example was corrupted when it bonded to that psycho Cletus Kassidy. Venom became corrupted when Spider-man rejected it."

"And you are, miss?" He sensed she was smirking.

"Neither mentally ill nor a killer."

"The same could be said for a lot of people."

"A lady has to have some secrets."

* * *

 _One Year Ago_

The first time James Buchanan Barnes meets Dr. Ko Morinozuka, he thought about killing her.

For about two seconds.

Basically until she hit the Hydra agents who were trying to capture him with a fire extinguisher.

He blinked.

She smirked.

That basically summed up their friendship.

"Hey," she greeted, a little breathless. Adrenaline, probably.

"I had them." He frowned.

"I wanted to feel useful. Your welcome, by the way. Now, could you pretty please get this" she held up a familiar black bracelet, "off of me." It was a monitoring device, usually put on valuable assets such as scientists who needed to be persuaded to help Hydra. They were electrified, more often then not.

Hydra took away choice, he knew that first hand, meaning the fact that not everyone who worked there did so willingly was easy to understand. He inspected it for a moment. _She could've slapped it on to gain your trust_ , a part of his brain whispered. The Winter Soldier quickly dismissed the notion, and broke it off with his metal hand.

"Thanks," she said, rubbing her wrist. "I know you probably know what you're doing, but please don't blow the building up until me and other Incentives Program members are out. Thanks." He was about to say he hadn't rigged the building to blow, but she had grabbed the red metal canister and was on her way.

 _Well that was odd_. He couldn't help but think before continuing his completely justified revenge party.

He'd all but forgotten about the strange little doctor until he'd been tranq darted. HYDRA had put a lot of time and money into making him their pet assassin, so it only made sense that they'd try to retrieve rather than kill him. Barnes also had a stab wound when one of the idiots tried to shank him or something. It would heal up soon enough (he hoped), but for now it was just annoying. He pulled the dart out of his neck, giving the bad guys enough time to turn on the giant super-magnet before he shot the last two.

He shits you not, a giant fucking super magnet.

The cursing was because with the metal arm that was very much attached to him, Barnes went sailing through the air and hit the damned thing with a thud.

So, since the HYDRA designers were far from considerate enough to give him a way to remove the arm, he'd just be stuck there until after the tranquilizers kick in, and HYDRA could pick him up at their leisure once he was unconscious to be wiped and put away in the cold again.

That was when he saw her. A teenage girl gingerly steeping over the dead bodies.

"Go! Get out of here!" He yelled, before more come.

"Not without you, idiot!" He had the strangest feeling of déjà vu as she went to a panel that probably controlled the super-magnet.

"What are you doing?"

"Well for starters, it appears I'm saving your ass." Briefly studying the control panel, she flipped a switch. His arm was free, but there was still the tranquilizer to deal with. He was going to pass out in…less than a minute.

"Getting tired?" She asked, looping his arm around her shoulder and all but dragging him out. It was getting harder and harder to put one foot in front of the other. His vision was blurry.

The notion he was performing less than his best chaffed slightly at his pride. "I could carry you around the city on my back without getting winded." And San Diego was not a small city.

"I'm going to choose to take that as a statement on your strength rather than my smallness. Also, if you ever get tired of destroying Hydra, at least you have something to fall back on."

"Carrying people around the city on my back?"

"Like a human taxi."

"I'll look into it." That was when his vision when black.

Once more, the Winter Soldier knew only darkness.

He woke up in a car.

"Please don't freak out." The girl, he remembered her. She was trying to project confidence, but was still obviously a bit concerned.

"I'm not." He felt for his weapons. He didn't have his gun, but the knife in his boot was still firmly in place.

"Your gun's under the backseat. I don't have a permit and didn't wanna risk people seeing it. Or you freaking out and using it on, well, me."

"You're driving. Wouldn't have been smart." He hid the gun at his side. Like she said, didn't want anyone noticing it.

"No offense, but I met you two hours ago, and from what I heard, you're one of the best at making people... Unalive. So forgive me if I didn't want a lifetime of unfortunate reflexes to cost me when you woke up from the tranq."

Smart girl. "You know who I am?"

"Everyone knows who you are. There are literal safety courses, mostly about how to run the hell away. I'm Ko, by the way." She glanced over with a smile before returning his eyes to the road.

"That short for something?"

"Yeah, Dr. Ko Morinozuka." She smirked. If that was a reference to something, he didn't get it.

"How did you get me in here?" He was easily twice her size, and this was a compact car, a hybrid, if he remembered right.

"Adrenaline would be my guess. Women can lift cars of of their babies and all of that." He was about to follow that line of questioning further, then decided against it.

"Where are we going?"

"My place. It's in San Fransisco. I have some proper medical supplies there so I can get you patched up properly." The stab would, yeah that still hurt. Ko seemed safe enough, so he didn't try to duck and roll out of the car and go someplace else. She spent the rest of the drive talking at him or singing along to the songs on the radio. He didn't know most of them, though there one or two that were vaguely familiar, though he couldn't quite pin down where he'd heard them— that was a familiar enough feeling.

Eventually, she pulled up to a small, two floor house with an attached garage that was only a few blocks away from the beach. She probably surfed, based on the obviously well-loved surfboard leaned up against the wall of the garage. Right by a sleek, black motorcycle.

 _Steve had a motorcycle._

He was remembering stuff more and more. It didn't bother him as much as it used to.

She unlocked the door, kitchen to the left and living room to the right. Instinctively, Bucky started cataloging entrances, exits, potential weapons in hand to hand, as well as cover in a firefight. Then, realizing he was doing that and not wanting to think about the reasons why he had to do that, he distracted himself with pictures on the mantle. They were all Ko when she was younger and two other people, a Japanese man and a Caucasian woman. Her parents. Glancing to the young doctor who was getting what looked like a toolbox of medical supplies from the cabinet, he noticed she definitely favored her father.

He remembered…parts of his parents. Ma's favorite perfume, the way she'd tuck him in at night. Dad's hearty laugh. He wished there was more.

Bucky wished for a lot of things he knew probably wouldn't happen.

"Alright soldier, chin up, shirt off." He complied, stepping from the living room into the kitchen. She inspected the wound with a doctor's disconnectedness and professionalism, though with a bit more care than he was used to. "Yeah, no way you're going anywhere tonight."

"I heal quick."

"I'm sure you do." She went into the toolbox and got a needle and thread that obviously wasn't for sewing. Ko looked at him for something like approval to keep going. He gave it with a brisk nod. After stitching him up, she put on some sort of healing salve that smelled herbal and a bandage.

"Do you like Chinese food?" She asked, getting something from the fridge. He shrugged. "Well, I have some cashew chicken and fried rice. Would you eat it?" _If it's not poisoned_. A traitorous part of his brain whispered. He just nodded.

"Good." After sticking it in the microwave for a few minutes, she serves him a plate with chopsticks.

He tried, he really tried. He could kill people with post it notes for fuck's sake, and yet he couldn't figure out how to eat rice with chopsticks.

The girl threw a fork at him. He easily caught it, then glowered at her from underneath the fringe of his hair. She just grinned back at him. "Don't give me that look," Ko said. "I'm not afraid of you."

He blinked at her.

He kind of figured, based off her general demeanor, and the fact she treated his wounds and was feeding him, but it was another thing to hear her actually say it and mean it. How could she not be afraid of him? Everyone was afraid of him, or what he could do, at the very least. Even his handlers were afraid of him. When they brought him out of the cold, until he was unleashed on his target, he was surrounded by heavily armed men. When he returned after completing missions, he was surrounded by heavily armed men until he went back into the cold. Instead of pondering it further, he just took a bite.

And it was delicious. And before he knew it, the plate was empty.

"Want some more?" He nodded. She took his plate and brought it back with more cashew chicken. She'd also served a plate for herself, and was eating it with chopsticks. Even watching her, he still couldn't figure out how she could be eating grains of rice with sticks. "If you think this is good, you're gonna love sweet and sour pork, if you want to stick around, that is." He couldn't see any reason not to—for now, that was. It was nice to have a—

(Friend)

—ally.

( _We're partners._ )

"Looking forward to it." He mumbled, though she still heard it, based off the way she was smiling at him—a nice smile, and one that made him feel warm inside.

After a two hours, where she served them both bowls of ice cream (which he also liked) she declared it was bedtime. He shrugged by way of agreement. He didn't need that much sleep. They went up the stairs to her bedroom. It was painted purple, and was decorated with various posters and maps. A large bookshelf filled up an entire wall, while a small (for him) bed was pushed into the corner by the window.

"So, two of us one bed." She pursed her lips in thought. "You can take it, you're injured. I'll grab a sleeping bag from downstairs—"

"I'll take the floor." He insisted, not wanting to put her out more than he already had. "Believe me, I've had worse." What was a carpeted bedroom with a pillow and a soft blanket compared to a buggy and itchy forest floor? Or abandoned barns in the French countryside? Or one of the many other frankly, horrible places he'd been forced to camp out on over his life. He settled down well enough, pointedly looking away while Ko changed into her pajamas and crawled into bed.

"Good night." She whispered softly before turning off the lamp.

"Night." He responded.

For the first time in a long time, James Barnes went to sleep almost effortlessly.


	6. Chapter 6

**Trojan Horde**

Well, this is a fine mess you've gotten me into." Cap deadpanned as they were surrounded by armed mercenaries. After going to the coordinates in the lab files, they found fake boulders protecting a secret entrance. They made it down to the labs again before some mad-genius type caught a glance and pushed the panic button.

"Oh I won't mind if you rough them up a bit. I play with inferiors almost everyday!" A young, well dressed woman stepped through the crowd of mercenaries.

"You do, huh?" Cap stopped, evaluating the newcomer. She didn't seem to be carrying any weapons.

"But then, I'm one of the Elite. I'm Cheer Chadwick, my papa's a biggie in the new society. I could beat you two if I wanted." She sounded rather confident.

"Is that so?" Ripper said, humoring the young woman, not feeling any sort of threat coming from the brat, but still keeping her guard up.

"I wouldn't advise it, miss." Captain America tried to reason. "We'd have to undo all you've been taught."

"Stand clear of those intruders, Miss Chadwick!" One of the armed men yelled, clearly intent on getting this over with.

"You can't give me orders! My papa pays your salaries, you work for us!"

"They're outsiders. Enemies of our state!" A believer. Great.

"Do as they say miss, this could get messy." Cap said. Ripper just rolled her eyes (not that he could tell) this 'Cheer' person was the one currently keeping them alive. Or at least, gave them time to think something out.

"I'd say fatal, but whatever." She still couldn't help but snark.

"Please, Miss Chadwick," the leader of the soldiers tried to reason. "We've got enough men to clean this up quickly if you'd only—"

"Oh, shut up, stupid! Can't you see that theses two interest me? They might be fun! The Elite decides who gets shot in this place—and we don't take sass from the hired help!" She struck him on the side of the head. Like the royalty of old, Cheer Chadwick haughtily brushes aside the menacing soldiery and defuses the situation.

"Stand down men, it seems we're guests of the Lady." Captain America said, always the reasonable one.

"Stand aside, bakas, this 'low-born' is coming though." Ripper stated, always sassy. True to their allegiance, the soldiers withdraw, Cap and Ripper then follow the girl for they now have the freedom to inspect the hidden instillation.

"Who'd have suspected that all this was going on beneath the Badlands?" Cap said, looking around.

Ripper whistled. "Wow, you guys must have paid a pretty penny to make this place." She commented on the fine detailing and sheer engineering work put into this place as they entered into an elevator.

"That's a lot of levels. I assume that the Elite occupies the top floor?" Cap asked innocently.

"You assume right, Mr. Mask. The Elite demands and gets the best view from the mountain!"

"What a great set up, for the Elite." Ripper leaned back against the wall, her arms crossed.

"Papa says that people like things this way, everyone is happy in their place. It's beautiful fellas, we're going to Level Five, that where my surprise is."

"That's probably what we came here to see." Cap turned toward his partner. No way she'd actually let them in close to the Big Daddy madbomb…right?

"I hope." She indicated.

The elevator stopped at Level Five, as the door slides open, it reveals—well, not Big Daddy, but it sure was a surprise.

"This looks like a brain-washing session." Ripper surmised, leaning against the railing of the balcony, her spider-sense silent for the moment, even if nothing else was. Dozens of people were yelling in support as a face on the screen talked at them, a design of the American flag in the background with a noose where the stars ought to be. "It's the same old, same old. Double talk slogans, corrupted flag, the iron-jawed, loud-mouthed leader. The Third Reich would probably sue you for trademark infringement."

"They were real Nazis about intellectual copyright." Cap bantered, the two of them sharing a glance and smirking before Ripper asked her next question.

"Who's the mouthpiece?"

 _ **We must beware of the Freedom Freaks!**_ It proclaimed to the roaring crowd below.

"Oh, he isn't real, just a composite face put together by a computer." Cheer explained, dismissive and haughty seemed to be her default tone.

"If this leader doesn't exist, then the Elite runs the whole show. They offer the followers an image while they wield the power." The captain commented, more to himself than to either of the two women.

 _ **The Freedom Freaks seek to destroy the love between us. But our love is strong, our love can destroy the freedom freaks.**_

"They just eat it up! They can't wait to see the Love Machine!"

"And that is?" Ripper asks. At that moment, an opening appears beneath the screen, and a mannequin being hung from a noose, the word 'freedom freaks' painted on the chest rises into view. And the crowd goes wild.

 _ **I show you my love! Now show me your gratitude!**_

Armed with metal bars and bats, the crowd beats on the hanging effigy with savage vehemence.

"So, what happens now?" Cap asked, sensing that their tour was coming to an end.

"Wait, wait, wait," Ripper interrupted. "Before you say anything, let me guess. If this was a comic book, you'd set up this elaborate way to kill us, giving us slim to none odds of survival," That we get through anyway. She told her symbiote. "that would entertain you and your followers."

Cheer Chadwick blinked. "Yes, the Kill Derby."

"Sounds like fun, but we're just gonna skip that part." Punching out Chadwick, she grabbed Steve's hand as they bolted out the door.

"Are you insane?" Cap asked his companion as people started shooting at them. His shield was keeping him covered, but instead of bouncing off of the symbiotic suit, they sunk into the black goo.

"Debatable! R messes with my brain chemistry!" As they took cover by rounding around a corner, he understood why. Pointing her fingers, Ripper fired the bullets back at them.

"What the hell?"

"Don't worry!" She assured, firing off like a Tommy gun. "They don't need kneecaps to breathe!"

* * *

 _Meanwhile, at a SHIELD encampment a few miles away._

"…the satellite pinged Rogers at these coordinates. We think he may have gone underground or an otherwise dead zone, because that was over two hours ago." That means they had to search by hand. But by then, who knows what kind of trouble Captain America and Ripper could be getting into. Because, you know, they were a strong-willed righteous soldier who'd help anyone and a sassy symbiotic troublemaker.

"Wait a minute, pinged. You chipped him?" Hulk asked, crossing his arms.

"For emergencies only." Fury explained. "Like right now. We don't know for sure what the Ripper's dragged him into."

* * *

Currently, a firefight with oddly dressed mercenaries.

"Crap." Ripper sighed, ducking back down.

"What?"

"I'm out."

"Shit." Cap sighed, not even bothering to ask how she knew this, or how this even really worked.

"Any ideas?" She probed as her spider-sense went off, meaning right before two of the green and yellow soldiers of the Royalists came down through the ceiling, pointing guns. Cap went up against the one on the right, leaving the one on the left for the symbiote.

"I know what you're thinking…question is, 'can I get Ripper before she turns me into sushi?' Well, baka, considering these babies," three spikes popped out of her knuckles, "Can cut through steel like a hot knife through butter, you gotta ask yourself 'do I feel lucky?" Before the guy could get off a shot, Ripper cut the gun in half, and split his nose open with a palm-heel strike.

"That was…interesting." Steve commented, done with his soldier. She webbed them up and stuck the soldiers to the walls with her black webs.

"That should hold them for about two hours. How's my Wolverine impression?" She asked.

"Not bad." He smiled at her, and under the mask he could tell she was smiling back. "But back to the task at hand. From what I was able to gleam, the Big Daddy is going through the final stages of construction if it isn't already completed. And given that they want to affect the whole country, it's going to have to be pretty big. We should look for any large garages or work areas, especially those that are heavily guarded and out of the way."

"Or, we just look for the room marked 'Big Daddy'." She pointed to the 'you are here' map on the side of the wall.

"You're just being—well, that's convenient."

* * *

 _Back with SHIELD,_

"We've found something, and Ma'm, you're going to want a look at this!" The technician handed the screen to the Black Widow, who all but demanded that she be the first to know everything they found. No one had the guts to go against her on this, and Fury didn't have the time for a debate.

"Holy—"

* * *

"—Crap." Ripper went as she felt Cap's ear piece go off again. They'd already barricaded themselves in the lab with the Big Daddy, the symbiote's webbing keeping the doors firmly closed.

Maybe we should answer R suggested, moving the piece into Ko's ear before the host could say otherwise.

"Hello?"

" _Ripper, it's Black Widow, we've found the facility, and are already engaging the enemy. Can you give me to Cap?_ " She was tempted to say no, but:

"Sure. Hey Cap!" The Spangled Man turned. "Here!" she threw him his com-link.

" _What's your situation?_ "

"A terrorist group called the Royalists are going to detonate a mad bomb, it'll mess with people's brains and make them fight it each other. After it's all over, they'll take control of the US Government re-establishing an aristocracy."

" _And where are you?_ " Natasha said, taking all of that in stride. Well, considering all the really weird crap they had to deal with as Avengers, plain-old terrorists barely registered.

"In one of the lower levels, we've found the Big Daddy bomb and have barricaded ourselves in the lab with it. Ripper's trying to figure out a way to safely dispose of it."

"Hey Cap!" She shouted over.

"What?"

"How much experience do you have diffusing bombs?!"

"Natasha, I'll have to get back to you-Some, why?"

"Because I'm no expert, but it looks like they've decided to screw irony and just detonate this thing early."

"What irony"

"Detonating it as the fireworks go off on the Fourth of July."

He looked over the sleek, high tech weapon of mass destruction-and it's rather antiquated countdown clock. "I can try. How much experience do you have with diffusing bombs?"

"Read a book once. Well, it was a chapter in a book."

"Okay, then, educated guesses," he moved for the red wire. The spider superhero stopped his hand. "What?"

"Spider-sensei no rikey."

"Hasn't been wrong yet. Process of elimination then." Steve's hand moved towards different wires and buttons, and Ripper's Spider Sense would tell them a firm 'no' until he got to a white wire.

"We're good. Take it out." And for one nerve-wracking second, he didn't think it actually would, until—nothing.

"We did it." They looked at each other, relief showing in both of their masked faces. They leaned in towards each other, before-

"Cap?" Falcon's voice came in over the coms. Steve looked almost apologetic before touching his ear.

"I'm here Falcon, go ahead."

"We've got almost everyone on the lower levels rounded up, working our way up towards the Elite. Prisoner transport should be here within the hour. How's the madbomb?"

"Ripper and I handled it. In fact—" He looked to the tiny symbiotic woman. She let out a toothy smile, and let her arms turn into swords.

"It'd be my honor." And promptly started chopping the thing up like shishkabob.


	7. Chapter 7

**He Came in Like a Wrecking Ball**

From the top of their mountain fortress, the Elite partied, well tried to party. At this point it was really just forced chit-chat to hide their nervousness at the peasants breaking down their door. They had heard the reports as they were coming in, Cheer Chadwick had let in two strangers, intent on throwing them into the Kill Derby for fun before they escaped, and had barricaded themselves in with the Big Daddy Madbomb. The decision had been reached that the bomb would be detonated early, that way taking out the low-born soldiers, even at the cost of their own.

Of course, all of the Elite had been fitted with ocular implants so that the rage-inducing waves would have no affect on them, so why concern themselves with the fate of the lower classes?

Then it was discovered that Big Daddy had been destroyed be the two figures now known to be Captain America and the Ripper, the first an antiquated Paragon of the very system and ideals they sought to overthrow, the other an unknown but dangerous Renegade.

But, William Taurey, the man in charge, held no fear of failure. The Monarchy would live on. This was just a setback, he reassured everyone. They still had all their data not to mention a few peanuts and dumplings, all they needed to do was get their affairs in order and start over again.

Starting with Captain America and the Ripper.

* * *

As they made their way up through the facility, trying to join up with SHIELD to take down the Elite, neither the symbiote or the soldier noticed the small peanut bomb go off in a nearby air ventilation shaft, the resonance filling up the entire hallway.

Her spider-sense went off, but before she could think, Ripper was spun around and met with a solid right cross usually reserved for fascist Aryan dictators.

"Hey, if this is about the whole kidnapping thing, I already—"

"Shut. Up." Ripper's eyes narrowed at his harsh tone. She caught his next punch and delivered one of her own.

"I used to really look up to you. When you agreed to help me, I almost couldn't believe it." In a move reminiscent of a chorus girl's kick line, she kicked him square in the jaw. "Almost." Grabbing him by the front of his uniform, Ripper—not the host, but _Ripper_ \- looked him right in the eye. "Should have known you didn't really want to be my friend. You're just like the rest of them." Steve head-butted her, knowing he hit the nose by the crunch of bone. "Out to use me. Well let me tell you bub, I DON'T LIKE BEING USED!" She screamed in his face.

"You're insane!" Cap spat in her face.

She head-butted him back, and she actually broke something based on the blood leaking out of his nose.

"Why'd you turn on me? Is it because I made you look bad? Is it because I'm that—" Karate chop to the side of his head.

"—much—" Kidney punch.

"—better at this than you are?" She picked him up and pushed him down onto her knee, stomach first. "You realize I could've spiked up my knee right? Put a hole right through your chest. Would've bled to death in minutes, even with that fancy serum." She grabbed him by the hair, her mask breaking open to reveal white, pointed teeth with a wicked tongue and an evil smile. "But I didn't. Wanna know why?"

Rogers groaned in a way the sounded kind of like 'piss off'.

"Because I'm Carnage's kid. And I like playing with my food. Now," she dragged Captain America to his feet. "ROCHAMBEAU!" And kneed him right in the crotch. The Family Jewels. The Grapes. The Little Captain. The Washington Monument.

"Holy crap." Falcon observed, him and the rest of the SHIELD Avengers watching this from the hacked surveillance feed.

"Are you seeing this?" Natasha commented.

"Sure am. Looks like Ripper and Captain America beating the crap out of each other." He waited a few more seconds. "And it looks like Ripper's winning. I'm going in."

"Wait."

"What?"

"High frequency noise. We go in, we'll become just like them. Also, I'm kind of curious as to who will win." She added, missing Hawkeye's quips.

"Ten bucks says Ripper." Hulk wagered.

"Hulk." Falcon scolded.

"What?"

"Inappropriate…and fifteen on Cap." Falcon had confidence in the super-soldier.

"C'mon hit me some more, you can do better than this can't you!?" Grabbing the back of his head, Ripper slammed Captain America's face into the floor. "Can't you do anything interesting like eye-gouging or fish-hooking?" She easily dodged each time he threw a punch. Like a kung-fu master and her impatient pupil sparing for the first time. "Or maybe you wanna rip out my tongue." The symbiote wagged the lizard like licker as she ran towards him, and used a judo throw to send him to the ground.

In the time it took for him to stand back up, Ripper stuck herself to the ceiling, web shot around Cap's waist, and threw him against every wall of the battle area like a human wrecking ball. His vibranium shield, now stuck to his back, did little by way of damage control.

"She's a psychopath." The Elite paled, watching the feed with horror.

Ripper and a now unconscious Captain America burst through the adjoining wall. "High functioning sociopath." There was a silence. "Sherlock reference? Really? No one?"

Elite and SHIELD stared as one. Ripper had used Captain America as a _battering ram_ to get through to the Elite's heavily secured hq.

"Cap?"

"That's right Ripper, pour that maple syrup…all over my pancakes. Oh, you beautiful lady who lives on the rooftops."

"…I'm just going to ignore that. For now." She picked him up in a princess carry, and told Natasha to lead the way.

* * *

 **A year ago…**

Not two days after she had dragged the Winter Soldier home with her, and he was already getting into trouble.

"I got shot."

"I… can see that." He took his armor off as she pulled on surgical gloves and took out her toolbox.

"You're lucky, it missed your carotid artery. Barely."

"Your heart rate's elevated, but at least the bleeding's stopped." She commented before pulling out a needle and thread. "I'm going to start stitching this up." She learned early on that it was best to let him know what she was going to do before she did it. For a man who for so long not in control of his own body or mind, it was the least she could do.

"What's that?" He indicated the stuff she was grinding up with a mortar and pestle.

"Yarrow, garlic, and ginger. The yarrow will help you stop bleeding, while the other two are to help ward off infection."

"I thought you were a doctor, not a medicine woman." He teased

"Herbs have been utilized by humans for medicinal purposes for thousands of years, possibly even a million. Pharmaceuticals, for example. I simply like to use more natural stuff, when I can. More often then not, it's proven to be less stressful on the body." She seemed to realize she was lecturing.

"It's okay, I like it when you talk."

"In that case, I can give you my argument as to why Victor von Frankenstein is the real villain of the book, or at the very least a gigantic douche bag." He smiled at that.

"Sure."

An hour later, she was still on about it. "…and let me tell you, when the Creature literally strangles a kid and you still like him better, that's saying something. Even then, it's sort of implied that he didn't mean to kill him, as he said he put his hand on William's throat to silence him. Now— " She turned around, and realized that his eyes were closed. Smiling, she draped a blanket over him and went upstairs.

 **Two weeks later** …

They'd gotten caught.

It was an inevitability, more or less. There was only so long she could hide a trained assassin in the house, especially when he was determined to eat all the sweets and watch everything in her Netflix que. Sure, he was polite about it _but she had already seen Orange was the New Black and Making a Murderer—_ ahem, anyway, point was, the two of them were now face to face with her mother, Francine Morinozuka. Ace attorney, and the most feared lawyer on the West Coast. She once made a testifying Marine Sargent cry in court— _and she hadn't even been yelling at him_.

Bucky had almost cringed at overhearing the tongue-lashing Ko had gotten, and it was keeping all of his training to keep cool at his one-on-one with Mrs. Morinozuka.

"And you!" Bucky gulped. "You're the one with the bright idea to stuff the dead guy in our freezer. We put food in there!" Yeah, admittedly not his best idea. Really, it was only the latest in a long line of questionable ideas.

"I can leave-" He suggested.

"Oh you will, but first, you are going to take the dead body out of my house, and bury him in the woods or a dumpster or something. Nothing ties back to us, you hear me?!"

"Yes ma'm."

" _What the fucking hell were you thinking, bringing my daughter into this?_ Our beach house is on the Malibu coast. It's unoccupied most of the year. _She's just a kid, and while I can't tell you how to live your life, I can make sure you don't mess up hers!_ " She said while writing down an address.

"What are you doing?" He blinked.

"Plausible deniability. Whatever the two of you are up to, I can't get you off if I'm in prison as an accomplice."

"Got it." He nodded.

"Now, please don't take this the wrong way, but _get your ass out of my house right bloody now!_ "

 **Three days after that…**

"Look who I found." James dragged another person into the beach house as Ko was busy entering data on her laptop.

He pounded the scout's head into the glass table in front of the TV. "James! Mom just bought that coffee table!"

He definitely did not want to face the wrath of Francine Morinozuka. "I'll clean it up." He promised.

"You better. Bloodstains are a little bitch to get out of carpeting."

With that, Ko walked upstairs to put on her headphones and listen to Swedish rock bands while James had a little chat with the soon to be dead man.

* * *

 **Back to the present day…**

"What happened?" He woke up about an hour later in the medical division of the Helicarrier. Natasha, being a bro, had volunteered to talk to Steve about what had happened, starting with jogging his memory after getting a concussion for being a human battering ram.

"Remember when MODOK used those microbots to make us fight each other, well imagine the same thing only with a high frequency sound generator." He felt beyond sore, and beyond ashamed at what he had done as the memories of his time under started to trickle back to him.

"Where's Ripper?" He looked around, hoping against hope that she'd brushed her mistrust of SHIELD aside for the moment to…never mind, it was stupid.

"She ran off after your tests were done. I like her style." Girl had potential for great things, that everyone could agree on.

After about two hours, Steve and Nat finished their interview/talk/statement/whatever, and he stayed in the hospital bed afterwards, not even attempting to get up and insist he was fine to the doctors and nurses. It was a little…birthday gift to himself, he supposed. The clock struck one am about five minutes ago so it was, technically, his birthday.

At 1:06 am, Ripper quietly snuck into his room. He wasn't sure how, everything he'd seen indicated she preferred just wrecking stuff as opposed to the stealthy route. Spider-Man probably. The kid trusted her, and that was good enough for him.

"How do you feel?" She asked, looking over his charts.

"Like you used me to break through a wall." He sassed. Cap didn't know how, but he could tell she was smiling, knowing that she had this coming.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Right before you turned on me, I heard something strange. It must've been a prototype for me to notice it, then you attacked me and I had to play along so they wouldn't see what I was doing."

"You were faking it?" He asked. Because from what he could remember, she played the part with a ferocious and bloodthirsty believability.

"Yeah, short of a bomb going off next to me, noises aren't a problem. Plus, how many people can say they've kicked Captain America's butt?" She went to the door, stilled, then turned back to look at him. "That reminds me, there's something I've been meaning to tell you,"

"Um…" He blinked.

"Bucky says hi. Also, you've got a really nice butt."

"Wha—"

"Laters." And disappeared into the shadows, leaving Steve staring at the spot on the wall she had just been five seconds ago.

…What the actual fuck just happened?


	8. Not Quite an Epilogue

**Hey Guys! I hope you enjoy this!**

* * *

 _Epilogue._

After getting a good night's rest, and spending a good five hours on paperwork, it only took another two for SHIELD to track down the Ripper.

She was eating a donut while reading the latest copy of the National Geographic. Captain America thought it was charming. "Hey guys." She greeted, pulling the lower half of her mask back down. "What do you need?"

"Ripper, we're here to recruit you into SHIELD." Falcon started.

She blinked. She was wearing a mask, and the eyes blinked. (Fucking symbiotes).

"Though your methods are a bit…unconventional, I think we worked well together, and I think you'd be a great asset to the team." Cap said, trying to be as honest and charming as he could.

"I thought you said you weren't part of the Avengers anymore." She cocked her head.

"I'm not. But Falcon, Hulk, Black Widow and I formally joined up with SHIELD. We're part of a special taskforce."

"So you're like, what? Secret Avengers?" Not a bad name actually.

"Something like that." Natasha said evasively.

"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask, what happened? Did Iron Man finally start charging rent or something?"

"It's a long story. We had a chance to eradicate Ultron, but Iron Man messed it up with his secret keeping and personal agenda. We all agreed, we can't work with someone we can't trust when it matters." Cap explained.

"So you go to SHIELD? Wait a sec, Ultron is at large and you guys are divided and arguing? That is literally the worst idea I've ever heard. And I'm including trickle-down economics, the pullout method, and the plot of the Star Wars prequels." Steve only knew what two of those things were. "You know what? Call me when you stop acting like children. Except you Hulk, you're awesome." He gave a thumbs up. "Ripper out."

She web-swung away into the night. Steve then realized that she'd left her magazine behind. He picked it up the same moment that the black webbing stuck onto it. They played a quick game of tug-of war for awhile before the National Geographic ripped in two, sending the pages flying into the night air

As the pages fluttered around him, Captain America began to wonder just what the heck he was doing with his life. Falcon and Black Widow on the other hand were just muttering about the litter.

* * *

Like all good things, Bucky's time with Ko came to an end. He'd been so happy, that he forgot that positive emotions were just a invitation for the universe to come around and give you a kick in the crotch.

Currently, that kick came in the form of Crossbones and his team of hunters coming to the Beach house one afternoon. He'd known they were coming, and sending Ko away under false pretenses, he had prepared.

"You're coming with us, Asset." The hunters circled him in the kitchen. He already had his gun out, and knew he could take half of them out before they could get him. But that wasn't the plan.

"You're not gonna use that." He indicated their weapons. Most of them just to stun—HYDRA had invested too much time and effort to just kill him if it could be helped.

"What makes you say that?"

"You shoot me, I drop this," he held up the zippo lighter, "and the entire house goes up in flames. You must've noticed the smell by now. With the amount of kerosine I used, we'll go out with a real bang. However, you don't shoot me and walk away, Hydra won't be pleased. So… decisions." Bucky didn't want to blow up Ko's up house, she was his friend. But no way in the fiery depths of Hades was he going back to HYDRA, and if he was going to go out, he was gonna go out swinging.

Begrudgingly, the mercenaries backed out of the house and left. He then took out their helicopter with the rocket launcher Aimi Morinozuka had given him for his birthday (Grandma Morinozuka was a badass). Knowing his luck though, Crossbones was probably still alive.

Ko sniffed. "James, why does my house smell like a Molotov cocktail?" He'd have to ask her how she knew what one smelled like later.

"Uh, well, Rumlow—"

"Who?"

"Hydra."

"Ah." She rubbed her temples. "Let me guess, you threatened to light a match if they tried to shoot you or something."

"Drop a lighter."

"Ugh, I'm going to Google how to safely clean this up, we're going to clean this up until I'm confident my mom isn't going to blow herself up the next time she wants to light a few scented candles, then I'm going to eat like, 1000 pounds of cake."

"Yes ma'm."

How the hell do you apologize to someone for almost burning their house down? Bucky had a feeling it wasn't something you could just google.

So, after they cleaned up, he left. But not before finding about a certain alien that lived in her bloodstream.

* * *

 _After Defeating Thanos…_

Iron Man landed on the roof she saw her perched on. "Ripper, as you may know, the Avengers are back together, and we need to respond to new challenges that come with new enemies. We would like to formally invite you—"

"I'm in."

"What? But you didn't even get to hear our pitch yet."

"Does your pitch involved you buying me lunch?" She gestured to the panini shop below.

"Yeah." Cap said.

"Then I'm in."

"Great! Okay, we'll set up a room in Avengers Tower, get you an id card, include you on the Google docs, and start cc'ing you on all emails. Cap, treat the lady a big pepperoni, on me." And flew off, with Cap blushing.

They both tasted like cheese pizza when he finally worked up the nerve to kiss her. It wasn't the perfect fairy tail kiss that little boys and girls saw in Disney movies. Ripper had to stand on her tip-toes to reach him, and Steve was obvious new at this.

He could kiss a pretty girl, it wasn't like it was the end of the world.

* * *

 **I really hoped you liked reading this little story as much as I like writing it. So... would you be interested in a sequel? Let me know**


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